Iran must respond to US threats: Friday Prayers leader

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Tehran interim Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami said in an address to worshippers on Friday that recent remarks by US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry target the Iranians’ “national pride.”The Iranian cleric added that the US officials must get a response to their comments “at the same level” and “according to the culture of resistance.”Kerry said on Thursday that if Iran resumes uranium enrichment beyond the five-percent level, “then the military option that is available to the United States is ready and prepared to do what it would have to do.”Similarly, President Obama in his State of the Union address on January 28 claimed that the anti-Iran sanctions brought Tehran to the negotiating table with the six world powers - the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany.Khatami also underscored the importance of the resistance culture in giving rise to Iranians’ grandeur and dignity.Iranians owe their dignity to their resistance, the Iranian cleric stated.Khatami added that enemies are seeking to defeat the Islamic Republic through dismantling the country’s “religious democracy.”/149